Santa Fe Archaeological Society

Linda Cordell and Her Many Contributions to Southwest Archaeology - Dr. Maxine McBrinn and Dr. Judith Habicht Mauche
2026-02-17 18:30 - 19:30 (America/Denver) | Pecos Trail Cafe, 2239 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 87505
Linda Cordell was extraordinarily active in southwestern archaeology during
her entire career. She augmented her own robust research by also investing
her resources in the work of others. Because of this, her influence extended
well beyond her own students to those of many of her colleagues. One of her
last personal endeavors was working with the Tijeras Pueblo Ceramics
Project. Examples of her prodigious influence on archaeological research will
be presented.
Biography
Judith A. Habicht-Mauche is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she has been a member of the faculty since 1990. Prof. Habicht-Mauche’s research interests include the study of the technology, organization of production and exchange of ancient pottery from the American Southwest and Southern Plains. She is an expert in the archaeological application of mineralogical, chemical, and isotopic techniques for sourcing artifacts and reconstructing ancient trade routes and patterns of cross-cultural interaction. She earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University in 1988. Her doctoral research on interaction between Pueblo farmers of the Southwest and bison-hunting nomads of the Southern Plains won the Plains Anthropological Society Student Paper Competition and was awarded the Society for American Archaeology Dissertation Prize.
Maxine McBrinn is the former Curator of Archaeology at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, NM and an independent researcher. She is a Research Associate of the Office of Archaeological Studies, also in Santa Fe. Dr. McBrinn earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder and also has a B.S. and a M.A. in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. She has worked in a curatorial role at a number of museums, including the Field Museum in Chicago and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS). Much of her DMNS research, conducted with Dr. E. James Dixon, focused on the Lamb Spring site. In addition, Maxine has conducted field research in Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico. Her research focus is on hunters and gatherers, social identity, and the transition to early agriculture. A technical specialty is archaeological textiles and basketry.
A 10.00 fee is requested at the door for non-members.

The Problem of Distinguishing the Coronado Expedition's Multiple Routes Across Southeastern Arizona - Richard and Shirley Flint
2026-03-18 18:30 - 19:30 | Sky Cinemas Midtown, 1600 St Michaels Drive, Santa Fe, NM, United States
There has been recent reporting of the discovery of what appear to be traces of sixteenth-century European presence in extreme south-central and southeastern Arizona. As a result, assertions have been made that those traces are indications of an outpost of the Coronado Expedition, called Suya in the surviving documentary record and San Gerónimo III by many modern scholars. Re-examination of sixteenth-century written records, however, shows that identification of that particular archaeological site as Suya is far from the only possibility. There are a total of at least eighteen known expeditionary episodes dating from the sixteenth century that could have left behind part or all of the material traces that have to date been identified in southern Arizona. The small, short-term occupation of Suya was dwarfed by the passage of the whole expeditionary force. Yet the current investigation claims to have located multiple sites associated with the minor Suya event and none linked to the vastly larger full expedition or any of its other sub-units. The evidence for Suya is thin, mostly conjectural, and not distinguishable from other events of the expedition.
Biography
The Flints are a collaborative team of Independent Scholars with major focus on archival research and publication on the early to middle sixteenth century in the U.S. Southwest and Northwest Mexico. Their special interest for 40+ years has been on the Coronado entrada of 1539-1542 and related activities both before and after. They are widely considered to be the foremost authorities on that subject. They have published nine books and dozens of journal article dealing with the sixteenth-century collision between Indigenous Americans and Europeans. In collaboration with the UNM Libraries, the Flints have produced an extensive online data base of information about participants, organizers, and supporters of that entrada: coronado.unm.edu.
This program is sponsored jointly by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation – Friends of Archaeology and the Santa Fe Archaeological Society.
A $15.00 fee will be charged for members, and a $20.00 fee will be charged for non-members. Thes program will also be live streamed for any interested participant at a cost of $10.00.
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The Coronado Expedition: The New Evidence - Deni Seymour
2026-04-21 18:30 - 19:30 | Sky Cinemas Midtown, 1600 St Michaels Drive, Santa Fe, NM, United States
Dr. Deni Seymour will talk about her work over the last few years during which she and her team discovered 17 sites left behind in southern Arizona by the Coronado Expedition of 1539-1542. The discovery of a Spanish townsite, overnight camps, and travel routes have revolutionized our understanding of the expedition – where they went, how they were organized, weapons they carried and what they did. Equally important are the insights gained into the Native Nations that lived in the area and interacted with the Spanish.

Biography
Deni Seymour, Ph.D. is an archaeologist and ethnohistorian whose 45-years of research have focused on the Spanish colonial period in the American Southwest, emphasizing Native peoples at first contact (O’odham, Apache, Jacome, and Manso), presidios, missions/vistas, and trails (Coronado, Camino Real, Anza, etc.). She has focused intensively on the 1539-1542 Coronado expedition, identifying more Coronado expedition sites in Arizona than all others known throughout the Southwest, extending the trail from Nogales to the Gila River. She has published nine peer-reviewed articles on her expedition-related discoveries, and a documentary film that is available on PBS entitled, Coronado: The New Evidence.
This program is sponsored jointly by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation – Friends of Archaeology and the Santa Fe Archaeological Society.
A $15.00 fee will be charged for members, and a $20.00 fee will be charged for non-members. Thes program will also be live streamed for any interested participant at a cost of $10.00.
Please check back for pending ticket sales information.

Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest - Douglas Preston
2026-05-19 18:30 - 19:30 | Sky Cinemas Midtown, 1600 St Michaels Drive, Santa Fe, NM, United States
Doug Preston and Walter Nelson rode cross country, not following modern roads or trails, sleeping ‘in the saddle’ and enduring some of the harshest deserts and roughest mountain terrain in the United States. Forced to battle extremes of heat and cold, impenetrable mesquite thickets, bad water, rattlesnakes, flash floods and paralyzing drought, they nonetheless found the country awesome in its scale and beauty, with much of it so untouched that It was still recognizable from descriptions in Coronado’s reports. Their exploration led to useful information regarding the route used by Coronado to find the Seven Cities of Gold.
Douglas Preston

Douglas Preston is a prolific American author born in 1956, best known for co-authoring the Pendergast series with Lincoln Child and for his solo works of both fiction and nonfiction. A graduate of Pomona College, he worked at the American Museum of Natural History and taught at Princeton University before becoming a full-time writer. He contributes to publications like The New Yorker and National Geographic, and is the author of numerous bestselling books, including The Lost City of the Monkey God.

This program is sponsored jointly by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation – Friends of Archaeology and the Santa Fe Archaeological Society.
A $15.00 fee will be charged for members, and a $20.00 fee will be charged for non-members. Thes program will also be live streamed for any interested participant at a cost of $10.00.
Please check back for pending ticket sales information.
